Mar. 27, 2013

Russell D. Moore

Written by

Peter Smith

Gannett

A seminary dean will replace Richard Land as the Southern Baptist Convention’s next spokesman on culture-war issues in the social, ethical and political arenas.

Russell D. Moore, dean since 2004 at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, was confirmed Tuesday as the first new president in a quarter-century for the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The commission’s trustees elected him Tuesday in Nashville.

He will replace Land, who is scheduled to retire after 25 years as a leading voice in the Southern Baptists’ emergence as a politically conservative voting force.

Land announced plans to retire in 2012 soon after the trustee board reprimanded him for making racially charged and plagiarized comments about the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida.

Moore, 41, has been a chief lieutenant under Southern Seminary President Albert Mohler in continuing to move the historic seminary on a conservative path. He already has been a regular commentator in news outlets on current events — a profile that is certain to rise further with his new position, which begins June 1.

The appointment — coming on a day when the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on same-sex marriage — will put Moore in the center of culture wars on abortion, homosexuality, church-state relations and other issues.

“I'm sure there will be controversy,” said Moore, a Biloxi, Miss., native. “But I don’t see the people who disagree with me as my enemies. … I seek to persuade and I seek to speak with kindness.”

Richard Piles, chairman of the ethics commission, said Moore came highly recommended and impressed trustees as “the man for the hour right now” when they questioned him Tuesday morning.

Robert Parham of the Nashville-based Baptist Center for Ethics — which is separate from the Southern Baptist Convention and has criticized Land’s political activism and religious justification for the Iraq War — said the election represents a generational shift in the denomination.

Land and Moore are both biblical conservatives, Parham said, but Land “focused on secular politics as a way to advance the Baptist agenda, even seeking special alignment with the Republican party.”

Moore “will focus more on the role of the church to influence society,” Parham said. “He represents a shift away from the hard right to the center right.”

Moore is perhaps best known in evangelical circles for his book, “Adopted for Life,” which made a theological case for all Christians to take part in the biblical mandate for orphan care, either through adoption or helping those who care for orphans.

Moore and his wife, Maria, adopted two sons from Russia.

Moore’s writings span the gamut from scholarly treatises to cover stories for the magazine Christianity Today to frequent tweets and blogs.

“I would expect to utilize every media available to speak to and for the things that matter,” Moore said.

Moore has served as chairman of the seminary-hosted Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which advocates for male authority in homes and churches. He has long voiced opposition to abortion and homosexuality, stances emphasized by the denomination.

In 2005, Moore was instrumental in the seminary’s replacement of its program training certified counselors with one that instructs students to be skeptical of much of modern psychology and to look first to the Bible to answer the “deepest needs of the human heart.”

In 2011 — a year before the Republicans’ November drubbing made it fashionable for conservatives to rethink their anti-immigrant stance — Southern Baptists called for a path to legal status for immigrants, and Moore wrote of the need to see immigrants as “persons made in the image of God.”

Before entering ministry, Moore worked as an aide to U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss.